Reid: No comment on Melgen

3/20/13 2:19 PM EDT

Ruth David

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid isn’t talking about Democratic donor Salomon Melgen one day after POLITICO reported that Melgen flew Reid on his jet last summer.

"I made a statement in the paper, I'm not going to say any more,” Reid told POLITICO, when asked Wednesday about his relationship with Melgen and if Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) asked Reid to help the donor in any way.

Melgen flew Reid on his company’s private plane last June to Boston and back for a Majority PAC event, Reid’s office confirmed Tuesday.

Majority PAC, a super PAC closely linked to Reid that benefits Senate Democratic candidates, reported reimbursing Melgen’s ophthalmology company $4,160 for “travel” last summer, a payment Reid’s office said was for the Boston trip.

“Sen. Reid took a flight that was in full compliance with FEC rules and fully paid for,” said his spokesman Adam Jentleson.

Flight records show that Melgen’s plane flew from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to Boston at 7:15 a.m. on June 18, 2012, en route to Boston. It stayed on the ground less than three hours, before returning to Reagan, which requires special security clearance for private planes.

Melgen is the wealthy South Florida eye doctor and investor under federal investigations for his business dealings. And the Senate Ethics Committee is looking at Menendez’s flights on Melgen’s plane. Melgen also donated $700,000 last year to Majority PAC, which spent $582,500 supporting Menendez’s 2012 reelection campaign — which Menendez won by 18 percentage points.